“Art Appreciation” for Young Children: The Importance of Teaching Art to Young Children

Many people seem to think that art appreciation is for adults, at least college students. However, young children are a at a great age to enjoy art and they can understand art through their own ways. This has been my personal belief and my recent student curator experience at Bonte Museum for young students has proved that I was right.

On September 2nd, 2023, I met a group of young students (Grade 3) attending international schools in Jeju English City. I gained this special opportunity of curating Bonte Museum’s artworks to young children; after recruiting young children interested in art appreciation, I organized the curating event.

Well, I can’t say that it was easy to guide and explain artworks to young children. I had to carefully monitor the children’s behaviors while explaining each artwork. In addition, as curious minds, the young students had quite unique and many questions. I did my best to answer them in an easy-to understand yet interesting ways.

The artwork the children liked the most was <Infinity Room> by Kusama Yayoi. Young students liked being in the Infinity Room, telling how they feel as if walking in a fantasy world.

After curating the entire museum for one hour, I offered an after-session to the children.

While having delicious and refreshing juice, we all created our own artwork depicting our impression or feeling after viewing all the artistic masterpieces of the museum. The young students passionately drew and expressed their ideas, sharing what they felt with other friends. By doing so, they were naturally learning how to appreciate art!